So I got my first response paper back and I am so unbelievably angry about the comments I received.  

I'm not allowed to criticize people because they are god's gift to this earth and I am a measly graduate student and what do I know about this stuff?  Psh, it isn't like political science and all areas of academics are built on critiquing the views of others.  Nope.  Not at all. 

Also apparently "hegemons" is no longer a word that makes any sense.  

And of course, if my interpretation of a book is different from the professor's (who is only like...3 years out of grad school herself), then my reading of it is completely wrong.  There is no debate about this fact.  None whatsoever.  Even if when someone quoted another author who quoted that book directly word-for-word, she said that he was misinterpreting him. 

So yeah.  Anyone who disagrees with her understanding is completely wrong.  Even if the entire class read it differently than she did. 

Yeah.  

I'm so fucking thrilled to have a professor like this.  Where instead of acknowledging that other points of view can have their merits, and allow an open discussion about them, like other profs have done, she shuts down any conversation with accusations that none of us read the book correctly.  Even if we were fucking quoting it word for word. 

I'm really fucking angry about this.  I really really am.